The Martin J. Whitman School of Management recently established the Orange Value Fund, a hedge fund and lightly regulated private investment fund, for financing and accounting students to gain experience in the stock market by investing real money.

The fund, consisting of contributions from investors and Syracuse University alumni, is projected to have a starting budget of $1 million. It will be supervised by Fernando Diz, an associate professor of finance, and is scheduled to begin in the fall 2006 semester.

There are other programs like the Orange Value Fund at other universities, said Melvin Stith, dean of the Whitman School. What differentiates the Whitman School’s fund from others is that students will use real money, make investments and participate on Wall Street.

‘This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to be involved in real-world decisions and for them to see their impacts before they leave Syracuse,’ Stith said.

Participation in the Orange Value Fund will give students a ‘definite edge’ in a very competitive business, Stith said.

‘We are currently working with the students to decide who gets to participate in the Orange Value Fund,’ Stith said. ‘It will be decided based on things like GPA, major and how active the student has been within the school.’

It is exciting SU alumni care enough to participate and to contribute money, Stith said. Their participation is a wonderful statement about what alumni think about the Whitman School and that they want Whitman students to be prepared, he said.

Randy Elder, an associate professor at the Whitman School and the director of the Joseph I. Lubin School of Accounting, agrees this is a great opportunity for students.

‘The Whitman School of Management is named after Marty Whitman, one of the greatest value investors in the world,’ Elder said. ‘This program is defiantly in the spirit of Marty Whitman.’

The fund will be run by Whitman upperclassmen who will make investment decisions alongside the fund’s board of directors, including Whitman, founder and co-chief investment officer of Third Avenue Management; Steve Ballentine, president and chief executive officer of Ballentine Capital Management; Richard Haydon, managing director of Neuberger Berman and Steve Barnes, managing director of Bain Capital.

Keri Hornik, a sophomore retail major, said the Orange Value Fund will only add to all that Whitman students achieve in the classroom.

‘It sounds great,’ Hornik said. ‘It will further the education and experience of the Whitman students.’

Published on April 10, 2006 at 12:00 pm